Customer Reviews

Cafe Max and Rosie's: Vegetarian Cooking With Health and Spirit

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am returning to order my sixth copy of this inspiring and entertaining cookbook for a Vegan friend. My kids (7 and 9 years old) even love the fare, and that's a blessing to a single, working parent with little time and very picky eaters. Ten Speed Press scores again -- who wouldn't want to devour these deliciously clever dishes sourrounded by the tale of Max and Rosie's timeless love? Spirited, playful, and best-of-all yummy, healthful eating. Congratulations Max & Rosie -- your family is about to get much, much bigger!

What a fabulous book! It magically creates a whole ambiance around healthful eating, from the gorgeous illustrations to the mouthwatering recipes and delightful, insightful commentary that both captivates and educates. Also, as a practising Nutritionist, I really appreciate that these recipes are truly healthy and not dairy or wheat dependent. A perfect companion for those new to a naturally healthy lifestyle, and those seeking new inspiration in an established natural foods diet.

It was October 1994 that I took those first steps into Asheville's vegetarian food grotto. You actually step down a few steps to get into Max & Rosie's Café, and most always greeted by a happy face behind the counter. It has the feeling of some Sufi café in London (if indeed there is such a place). Maybe that's because Max (that's not his really name by the way) follows the Sufi path, and IS from London. He's Rosie's husband. She's from Miami (and Rosie's not her real name either). She'll tell if you ask...

When you buy their book you'll learn more about their names and how they got started. It's a little bit of a mystery.

This is a review of Max & Rosie Beeby's first book.
 
It wasn't long after visiting the café that first time, that Rosie shared with me her desire to write a book. Our heritages both stem from New York City so she was easy for me to love immediately! She had already been a Macrobiotic food teacher back in Florida, and now serving the public she was ready. It made sense. However, being an active and dutiful mother, and Max doing his artwork (which the book and cafe is filled with) there was little time for book writing (and Rosie would like to stay away from the computer as much as she can.

However they were determined, and 7 years later Ten Speed Press published the book. Named after their restaurant (as in the tradition of Moosewood and other best-selling cookbooks), Cafe Max & Rosie's is a delightful and creative 178 pages of, not only recipes, but short statements of some of the people who have worked and visited the café, sort of like their guest book.

This book is a great "table top" addition. You can "feel" not only the essence of the food, but can also get the same "feel" of Max's artwork. Ah, Max, quite a mystic himself. With the rugged look of an English pub bouncer, he exhibits the gentleness of a Buddhist monk. I've spent a couple of nights talking with him late at night in their log cabin in the mountains.

Their book is divided: Part one called "Rosie's Cooking Classes," and part two "Just Juice It!" 

So, what distinguishes one cook book from another? Is it the amazing dishes? I think not, for as I have said of their restaurant, I say also of their book, "As Japanese culture has shown, how we eat--the ambience--is as important as the food itself."
 
The heavy parchment paper on which the words and artwork are reproduced can best be described as a table setting worthy of the love and purity contained within the recipes. And if you are indeed a food aficionado, page 56 offers a "Linguini with Fresh Garlic and Asparagus" recipe with tempeh, Portobello mushrooms, and spinach, that will soothe your senses, titillate your palate, and nourish you body. 

Is this the best cookbook I have read? I can't say, because I don't "read" cookbooks, I sense them. My sense of the Cafe Max & Rosie's book is that it is very "edible." It is a book worth having in your home....

Sw. Virato is editor and producer/publisher of New Frontier Magazine, Asheville Magazine, and Chattanooga Spirit, Bliss Magazine.

I just have to comment on this cookbook. The recipes it contains are absolutely delicious. I mean, it's unbelievable. Plus, the recipes are not complicated, and the food is very wholesome. You enjoy a plate of delicious food, and then your body feels great! (Not weighed down and greasy.) My favorite recipe out of this book is the Rhia Me Dear Rice Salad. This dish has been a minor obsession of mine ever since I lived in Asheville as a teenager. I now make it in my home regularly. The sauce that goes with it is DIVINE. It's vegetable bliss. If you want to eat healthfully, yet feel like you're cheating on yummy foods, get this cookbook. YUM!

It is so hard to find a beginning of this review, as there is so much coming out of the book. First the book comes alive with the people that are involved in the making of the book, and the Cafe itself. It was like you read about the characters in a story which come to life and and you can not wait to get to the recipes to see what they have done. Without saying I thought the selection and types of recipes was outrages in the good sense. Besides having a wonderful cook book for veggies, they went beyond the normal and added the wonderful stories about the beginning and the people involved in the Cafe. I believe if more cook books were written this way the people would enjoy them more than they do. In closing I would like to congratulate Max & Rosie for a job well done. If more are to come would be very interested in knowing. Thank you.

This book is more than a cookbook. For a new vegetarian, it not only easily explains how to prepare excellent foods in an easy to understand way, the author adds spiritually so that you actually change the way you look at what we put into our bodies and that of our loved ones.

Cafe Max & Rosie's is the book many people are looking for these days. Set up as a series of Rosie's cooking classes, vegetarian cooking is explained simply and clearly, including recipes that are both wholesome and elegant enough to please the beginner as well as the gourmet. Their juices and smoothies are mouthwatering and healthful. Their message of "mindful consumption" is designed to get people thinking about their health, the animals, and the state of the planet, not just now but for the future of our children. The artwork is sensational, and the stories of the cafe and the employees give a very personal note to the book. Cafe Max & Rosie's is much more than another vegetarian cookbook. As John Robbins said, "This book has spirit."

From the first page to the very last page this book held my interest. Aside from the wonderful recipes I enjoyed the stories they told. I felt like I was part of their staff. The illustrations were great. I felt the love that was put into this book. Tomorrow I will start cooking with one of their recipes. I haven't decided which one as yet as they all look delicious. I'll let you know which recipe I chose and how wonderful it tasted. Wishing you good health.

After reading the reviews I wanted to love this cookbook and eagerly awaited its arrival. So I was quite disappointed to discover the recipes are vegan, not vegetarian. (Unless I missed it, there's nary a dairy ingredient in sight. Or type.) Since I run away screaming from soy cheese products and the like, Max and Rosie's isn't gonna replace Moosewood for me any time soon.

The minestrone recipe looks luscious, however. But I'll be adding on the Parmesan... .